Bus ads aim to reclaim 'jihad' meaning

Updated 11:00 pm, Friday, January 11, 2013

An ad campaign on San Francisco buses is trying to change public perception of the word “jihad,” which has been distorted by extremists, Muslim and anti-Muslim alike.

Ahmed Rehab, a 36-year-old political activist, started the campaign in Chicago in December and expanded it to 25 San Francisco buses this month.

Rehab, who heads the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said his MyJihad campaign, which defines jihad as a personal struggle in many areas of life, is aimed at reframing the definition of a word that has become synonymous with armed struggle and terrorism.

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He said the word has been taken over by “Muslim extremists and anti-Muslim extremists.” The voices of moderate Muslims in the mainstream are “either drowned out or diluted,” he said.

The MyJihad ads, featuring attractive young men and women, include slogans such as “My Jihad is to build friendships across the aisle. What's yours?” and “My Jihad is to stay fit despite my busy schedule. What's yours?”

The campaign has its own website, Twitter handle and Facebook page. Similar campaigns are planned for the East Coast and South, Rehab said.

Merriam-Webster defines “jihad” as “a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty; also: a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline; a crusade for a principle or belief.”

“The intention of the campaign is to educate our fellow Americans about what the word jihad means,” Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Bay Area office of CAIR told KGO-TV. “A common misconception of the word jihad is that it means armed struggle or holy war, and that is something that has been perpetrated by many who've made careers out of pushing anti-Muslim sentiment.”

Rehab said the project comes in response to a campaign first mounted in New York City subways by conservative blogger Pamela Geller that includes such ads as: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”